Gonzalo Stiechel, 29, of Lincoln Avenue, Norwalk, was arrested Thursday night during a drug bust where police seized nearly a quarter pound of cocaine and a half pound of marijuana. Police also charged him with selling a gun to an undercover police officer earlier this month. less

Gonzalo Stiechel, 29, of Lincoln Avenue, Norwalk, was arrested Thursday night during a drug bust where police seized nearly a quarter pound of cocaine and a half pound of marijuana. Police also charged him with ... more

Photo: Stamford Police Department / Contributed Photo

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Jhonathan Cataneo, 26, of Maple Street, Norwalk, was arrested during a drug bust where police seized nearly a quarter pound of cocaine and a half pound of marijuana Thursday night.

Jhonathan Cataneo, 26, of Maple Street, Norwalk, was arrested during a drug bust where police seized nearly a quarter pound of cocaine and a half pound of marijuana Thursday night.

Photo: Stamford Police Department / Contributed Photo

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Alvardo Betancur, 49, of Greenwich, was arrested during a drug bust where police seized nearly a quarter pound of cocaine and a half pound of marijuana Thursday night.

Alvardo Betancur, 49, of Greenwich, was arrested during a drug bust where police seized nearly a quarter pound of cocaine and a half pound of marijuana Thursday night.

Photo: Stamford Police Department / Contributed Photo

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More than $10,000 worth of drugs seized

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STAMFORD — Narcotics and Organized Crime squad members arrested three men and seized nearly a quarter pound of cocaine and a half-pound of marijuana outside the PetSmart store on West Avenue Thursday night.

One of the men was also accused of selling a semiautomatic pistol to an undercover officer at the southbound Interstate-95 rest stop in Darien earlier in January.

Capt. Richard Conklin said NOC squad members along with officers from Darien, Greenwich and Norwalk, have been working for months investigating a large-scale cocaine dealer and heard that a big buy was planned to take place near the pet supply store on Stamford’s West side early Thursday evening.

Just before 7 p.m., a surveillance team and spotted a 1997 Honda Civic with three men pull into the parking lot. A man, later identified as Gonzalo Stiechel, 29, of Lincoln Avenue, Norwalk, got out and walked over to the agreed upon meeting place for the cocaine deal, police said.

Police officers converged and took Stiechel into custody. In his possession was a sandwich bag containing large chunks of powder cocaine weighing 102 grams, worth between $10,000 and $15,000 on the street, Conklin said.

At the same time the officers moved in on Stiechel, another team moved in on the Honda. Inside the front pants pocket of Alvardo Betancur, 49, of Greenwich, police found an Altoids tin containing four small zip lock bags with 2.1 grams of powder cocaine. In the car, they found a blue backpack containing nine heat-sealed baggies of marijuana weighing 180 grams, a large mason jar with a dozen bags of pot weighing 67 grams. Conklin said the pot was worth about $1,500.

In the pockets of the Honda’s driver, Jhonatan Cataneo, 26, of Maple Street, Norwalk, police found $430 in cash, which was seized.

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Because no one claimed possession of the backpack, the trio shared in the narcotics charges stemming from the drugs in the backpack.

At the time of the arrests, Conklin said that police had an arrest warrant on file for Stiechel, a former Greenwich resident, for selling a pistol to an undercover officer earlier in January.

Because he is a felon with a drug conviction stemming from a Greenwich arrest in 2012, Stiechel was charged with criminal possession of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit, illegal sale of a pistol along with the drug charges he picked up Thursday night. Stiechel was held in lieu of a $250,000 court appearance bond.

Betancur and Cataneo, were also slapped with drug possession and dealing charges and were held in lieu of $50,000 court appearance bonds.

Conklin also recognized the work done by the other police departments who played a part in the investigation. “This was real top notch police work by NOC and the agencies that helped bring this investigation to a close,” he said.